Guardian
by Bellatrix wannabe 89
Summary: When Robin loses something important to her, something irreplaceable, something that belonged to the man she admires most in the world, she thinks it’s gone to her forever. But when it turns up in the most unexpected of places, Alice and Robin will come to a rather beautiful realization about their relationship. Oneshot


I own no one but my own people

 **AN Just a short little oneshot that's been sitting in my Google Documents for a while and I finally managed to finish it. I hope you enjoy it.**

Where was it? Where was it?! WHERE WAS IT?!

Robyn's breath quickened the longer she searched. She had torn her closet in the apartment above Roni's apart, she had practically destroyed Regina's closet, even her mothers but it was nowhere to be found.

Tears half blinded her as she tore apart the small loft above the bar, searching every single conceivable and inconceivable place it might be hidden. Then afterwards she had dug through her backpack, her hamper, every dresser, every laundry basket…

Had she worn it when she was cursed? Had she worn it recently? She couldn't remember but she didn't think she had but nonetheless she sprinted down to the laundromat nearest the apartment and dug through every single washer, every single dryer, demanded the confused owner look in the back once, twice, three times until he swore that it wasn't there.

As Robyn stormed out of the laundromat she got on the phone and called her roommate from Tibet. 'Margot' asked her if she had left it there, if the roommate had picked it up by mistake but she swore up and down that she hadn't. She didn't even remember Robyn wearing something like what she had described to her.

Afterwards she sent on a park bench, trying to control her tears and her breathing as she called every single place in Hyperion Heights she might have worn it and forgot it. Bella Notres, the park where The Rolling Bayou frequently parked, the candy store, the book shop… None of them had it. None of them even remembered seeing her wear it...

Now full on weeping openly in the Seattle streets, Robyn made her way back to Roni's where Regina was working behind the bar.

"Robyn what's wrong?" her aunt asked the moment she saw the young girl, abandoning the few customers she had on a Tuesday afternoon. "What happened?"

"I lost it!" Robyn sobbed as she threw her arms around her aunt, crying into her shoulder. "I lost it, Regina, I'm so sorry!"

Regina knew exactly what Robyn was talking about. There was only one thing that would have made her usually strong and steadfast niece break down like this, not to mention what would make her apologize to Regina.

The bartender closed her eyes as her own tears made their way down her cheeks. Regina was the one who gave it to Robyn in the first place.

Well… that wasn't exactly true. She had given it to Zelena who was at her absolute wits end regarding her infant. Robyn wouldn't stop crying, wouldn't stop screaming, would barely eat, barely sleep… Whale had diagnosed her with colic but this was beyond colic, this was something far deeper and far more emotional than simple colic.

She had come to Regina in tears and desperate for help. She couldn't handle it, she couldn't bare it, she was a terrible mother and she couldn't make her own child happy.

To this day Regina wasn't sure what made her think of it but for whatever reason she thought of the first time Zelena held her. How Robyn had been quiet and content in her father's arms and started crying the moment he gave the baby to her mother. Not just that first time but it seemed that the infant would cry whenever she left Robins arms and Regina remembered how soothed she would be when he held her.

So, since she couldn't put her back in her father's embrace, she did the next best thing.

Regina begged him to throw it out. He had gotten it used, there was what looked like a cigarette burn in the arm, the zipper barely worked, it was far more scratchy than it was soft, he had a mountain of other hoodies that looked more presentable and far newer… but Robin loved that old grey hoodie. He had even written his initials in black permanent marker on the tag so none of his men might be tempted to steal it.

Regina has gone so far as to debating burying him in it but in the end she had decided he would go into the next world looking everybit the prince of thieves he had proudly been and dressed him in his leather trousers, his green leather tunic and green wool cape.

Instead it hung in her closet, away in the back where she didn't have to look at it or think about it and there it had stayed.

Until now.

The moment the baby was swaddled with the hoodie, all her crying ceased. All of her screams, all of her tears, all of her wailing disappeared as she turned her tiny head and nuzzled against the scratchy fabric, inhaling the smell of forest that had soaked deep into the fibers of the hoodie.

And so from that moment on, the hoodie had became Robyn's baby blanket of sorts. Then, when she got older and she was feeling sad or depressed or just simply missed her father she had worn the oversized article of clothing, pulling the hood up and letting the smell of forest she SWORE was still there calm her and take her sadness away.

But now it was gone. Robyn had lost it.

"Have you looked everywhere?" Regina asked as she stroked her inconsolable nieces hair. "Maybe you just left somewhere?"

"I looked everywhere, I tried everywhere, I don't-!" She sobbed again and clutched her tighter. "I lost it!"

"Where was the last place you had it? Come on, Honey, calm down and think."

Robyn took a shaking breath as she pulled away from the former Queen. "I… I don't know, I-."

"Yes you do. Come on, Robyn, think; did you wear it when you were Margot?"

She racked her brain for a moment. Three years was a long time to remember. Not to mention she wouldn't remember wearing something like that that had no significance to 'Margot' anyway.

"I don't… I don't think so," she admitted. "It doesn't seem like something I would have worn."

Regina closed her eyes for a moment before she pulled away from her. "Robyn, I hate to say it but it might not have been brought over with the curse."

That brought on a whole new wave of fresh tears and Regina steered her to the bar and sat her down, getting her a glass of ice water to help calm her down.

"I'm gonna call Storybrooke," Regina told her. "Maybe it landed in Golds shop."

"But… the timeline, what if we mess something up?"

"We might but it's our last shot."

So Robyn watched with bated breath as Regina called up the Storybrooke pawnshop.

"Hi, Gideon, it's Regina. Look, I have a question..."

Robyn bit her lip as she listened to the conversation and waited for a response from the former queen but after a few minutes of silence she watched Regina's face fall heavily.

"I see... No, it's no problem, I understand. Thanks for looking… oh um, if you happen to see me, don't ask me about this phone call, it's a very sensitive topic and I'm likely to just pretend not to know what's going on… Yeah… okay… Talk to you later, Gideon."

She hung up the phone and turned towards the young girl.

"I'm sorry, Robyn, I don't know where else to look."

Robyn ducked her head down, burying her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking from the sobs. Regina bit her lip but knowing that there was little she could do to comfort her, Regina just stroked her hair, gave her a fresh glass of whiskey, and left her alone to grieve.

An hour later Robyn showed up at Alice and Rogers apartment, hoping that the captain was out for night.

For once her wishes were granted and Robyn spent the next few hour or so sobbing in her girlfriends arms, explaining what she had lost and what it had meant to her as she rested her head in her lap while the tears streamed down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry you lost it, Love," Alice said softly as she stroked her girlfriends hair. "If there's anything I can do to help…"

"There's nothing you can do," Robyn sniffed away her tears. "It's gone, I lost it." Her chin trembled dangerously. "I don't have it anymore."

Alice quieted down at that. She could offer no comfort to her beloved, she couldn't make her feel better and it was absolutely killing the curly hair blonde.

After a while, Alice tried again, still stroking her hair to try to comfort her.

"I know it's not the same but I got a blue hoodie you can have. I can even put it on and go running around the forest so it smells like trees if you want."

That brought a small smile to Robyn and she sniffed, wiping the fresh tears from her eyes. "You don't have to go running through the forest but I think I will take you up on that offer for a hoodie, it is kinda cold in here."

Alice kissed the top of her head and waited for Robyn to sit up and made her way into the guest bedroom that Rogers had offered to her.

While Alice was gone the blonde haired archer wiped the wetness from her now red and raw eyes and she leaned back against the couch. As she pushed her hair from her face a sudden, very faint, very familiar, scent caught Robyn's attention.

And it was coming from Alice's backpack.

Robyn made her way over to it and unzipped the old army satchel and gasped as she saw a bunched up grey hoodie in the depths of her bag. The archer yanked it out and, sure enough, there it was.

The cigarette burn thanks to its original owner on the sleeve, the 'RH' in now faded black marker on the tag, the broken zipper you had to jiggle just to get it to come up to the top.

Robyn brought it up to her face and inhaled deeply, tears rushing to her eyes when the comforting smell of forest, stronger than even Robyn remembered, flooded her senses and bringing forward photographs she had been shown of a man with dazzling blue eyes and dark blonde hair.

But why on earth did Alice have it?

The curly haired guardian returned from her favorite dark blue hoodie in her arms. "Here, Love," she said. "I got the- oh you found it! Where was it?" she asked with a beaming grin.

"It… it was in your backpack," Robyn admitted as she held the hoodie close to her heart as if it might disappear if she didn't hold it tight. "I just… I had a feeling and when I looked it was in there."

Alice's eyes went eyes at this new information. She hurries over to her backpack, digging through the old trashed frayed army bag. "I- I swear I didn't take it!" she cried, terrified her love might not believe she didn't take the hoodie she knew meant the world to Robyn. "If I had known it was in there I would have told you!"

"I know, Alice, I know," Robyn quietly reassured her. "Maybe I gave it to you though when you spent the night one time and you just forgot about it? Or I left it here when I stayed over?"

Alice shook her head. "No, I've never seen that in my life. I don't even remember you wearing it as Margot much less giving it to me to keep warm. Not to mention I just looked through my bag the other day and it wasn't in there."

Looking down at the hoodie, Robyn ran her hand over the light black 'RH', the initials that not only belonged to her but her father and brother as well, written by her father's hand. Growing up she had stared at those two little letters more times than she could possibly count to the point she sometimes saw them in her sleep.

The curve on the bottom leg of the R, the elegant small loop between from the straight leg and the curve, the H having a slight curve to the right on both sides with the middle line finished with its own loop; both letters written in an elegant, classy fashion that someone that had grown up writing with a quill, ink and parchment rather than a pen and a piece of paper would write.

Robyn pulled the hoodie around her and put the hood up, inhaling deeply and smiling, closing her eyes as the tears leaked behind her lids.

It still smelled like forest.

She opened her eyes and stared at the unnerved Alice who was still fretting about how on earth the hoodie could have gotten in her bag without her noticing and then Robyn remembered something very similar had happened to Alice before.

"The dagger," Robyn muttered.

"What?"

"The dagger… remember how the dagger appeared in your bag, and how you kept it safe even without you even realizing you had it?"

Alice's pale blue eyes went wide with shock and realization as she looked from the dark green bag to the hoodie currently being worn by her girlfriend.

"I… I didn't… you- you think I might have done something similar with your Papas hoodie?"

"You're the Guardian of the dagger, Alice. You were meant to defend it and protect it…" Robyn got up from the couch and walked over to her, wrapping her arms around her waist and bringing her closer. "It makes sense if… if some power or some- some person knew it could trust you to take care of something so close to my heart and put the hoodie with you to keep it safe."

A slow smile rose to Alice's face as she draped her arms around Robyn's neck. "So… whatever of whoever put the hoodie in there for safe keeping… its basically calling me the guardian of your heart?"

Robyn chuckled softly and nodded, resting her forehead against hers. "Yeah. I think that's exactly what it's saying…"

Meanwhile, in a nameless tavern in a nameless afterworld, a man with bright blue eyes and elegant handwriting that had a clear view of the happenings on earth, more importantly in relation to a brown eyed bartender, a curly haired man with dimples, and a green eyed woman currently kissing her girlfriend, and smiled at the fact his daughter and her soulmate understood exactly why he gave the hoodie to Alice for safe keeping…

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